‘We Are Not Flattening the Curve’: Health Officials Warn Rise in Coronavirus Cases Is ‘a Real Increase’

As coronavirus cases rise around the country, the nation’s top health experts are warning that the trend is going in the wrong direction.

During a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Thursday, Adm. Brett Giroir said, “We are not flattening the curve right now. The curve is still going up.”

“Flattening the curve” is a term that refers to slowing the spread of the coronavirus to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system.

On Wednesday, the U.S. reported nearly 50,000 new coronavirus cases, which set a record for the number of daily new cases. The rise in cases has led several states to pump their brakes on their reopening plans and implement mask-wearing mandates.

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President Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that the rise in cases is due to more testing, as IJR reported. During a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said, “When you do testing to that extent you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases.”

He added, “So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. They test, and they test, we got tests, and people don’t know what’s going on.”

Amid criticism of that statement, White House officials claimed the president was joking, and members of the White House coronavirus task force said they were never told to slow the testing down.

However, during his testimony on Thursday, Giroir disputed the notion that the rise in cases was simply due to increased testing, “There is no question the more testing you do, the more you will uncover, but we do believe this is a real increase in cases because the percent positive is going up.”

Additionally, he placed some of the blame on “under 35’s with a lot of gatherings, not appropriate protections like masks. “

“Yes, it’s important to reopen, and we believe in the guidelines. But I think the weight of the evidence is … the personal responsibility is really the key right now,” he added. 

In an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I think it’s pretty obvious, Howard, that we are not going in the right direction.”

He added, “We need to realize that if we do not adhere to the guidelines as we’re trying to open, and I don’t mean officially, I mean the citizenry, the people that are out there, we’re going to be in some serious difficulty.”

Fauci previously suggested the lockdowns around the country aimed at slowing the spread of the virus should have been stricter, “That allowed the perpetuation of the outbreak that we never did get under very good control.”

“And now when you look at what happened in some of the states, all you have to do is take a look at the news at night and you see people congregating at bars without masks, congregating in different types of groups that are well beyond the recommended number,” he added.

Finally, Fauci said, “What happens when you do that, and you don’t wear a mask, you get the kind of outbreaks we’re seeing.”

As cases rose, California, Florida, and Texas announced they would close restaurants and bars to help slow the spread of the virus.